Last Thursday

Thursday nights are when we have dinner at my house. Some of us from the church get together, inviting folks from the neighborhood, getting to know each other. Leo spends the night because it’s easier to just leave from here in the morning, as we’re both going to the church. Or maybe it’s because we all sit around for a while before bed, sometimes talking, sometimes not.

Anyway, this past Thursday, Leo was out on the porch smoking, I was picking the banjo, and Ica was curled up next to me. It was a good, cool spring night. The boys were in bed, but not asleep, even though it was a little late. They were listening to the talk and music on the porch. I remember when I was a kid and there was a guest over. The adults would talk awhile after I went to bed, and there was such a sense of peace and security listening to voices—not making out words, just hearing voices.

Leo and the boys have a ritual. They call him “Cookie Monster.” He says, “Give me a cookie!” and they repeat it and laugh. Well, Leo heard a few little boy whispers in the room and he called out, “Give me a cookie!” The boys lost it, we could hear them guffawing from outside. Next morning, they couldn’t talk about anything else, and kept pestering Leo to say “Give me a cookie.” He was actually hoarse by the time we got to church…

Leo calls me, the boys and Jessica “The Wrecking Crew.” Now the boys have decided that we can’t be called the wrecking Crew unless Leo is with us. One of the boys said, “It’s like Leo is a part of our family.” Interesting, that. Leo told me that he only got to meet Melissa once, the one time she could come to the Rock. He said that he was touched immediately because she looked right at him and he could tell she accepted him. Makes sense that her boys would, too. If we are blessed to have faithful people in our lives, they will blaze a path for us—a path of the love Christ has for His people, and a path that is free of fear of death.